Pastor’s Corner – January 2019

It was Christmas, 1939, and a very troubled King George wondered what he could possibly say to his subjects that would give them some sense of peace and security. These were some of the darkest days the nation of Great Britain had ever known. The Nazi blitzkrieg had overwhelmed continental Europe. America had not yet entered World War II, and the tiny island nation stood virtually alone against Adolf Hitler’s plan for world domination.

As the King struggled to craft a message that would bring some hope to a desperate nation, his mind was drawn to the lines from a poem written a generation earlier by Minnie Louise Haskins, entitled “God Knows:”

‘I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ““Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown” and he replied: ““Go out into the darkness and put your hand into that hand of God, that shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way”.’

And here we are today – at the gate of a brand New Year – living in times that are perilous and uncertain as well, just as they were for the people of Great Britain in that dark winter of 1939-40. But the wonderful news is that bursting into a dark and troubled world has come God’s great Light of the World! Yes, the gift has arrived! Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, God’s one and only Son has come to be our light in darkness – and to lead us safely into the New Year!

My prayer for each of us is that we will “put our hand into the hand of God,” and allow that divine hand to guide us each day of our journey through this brand new year, with all of its uncertainty, to be sure, but with all of its promise as well.

Laurie joins me in extending to you our love and warmest wishes for a wonderful 2019!